This article investigates the formation and use of the notion of the ancient origins of Swedish democracy before the Second World War. A commonplace of the early rhetoric on the ancient origins of Swedish democracy was its reference to an anti-aristocratic tradition, despite the variety of political positions that the rhetoric served. It was the leitmotif of the first sporadic notions of a democratic past in the 18th century, it was the main topic of the romantic idealisation of a coalition between the monarch and the peasants, and it served as an argument in struggles over suffrage reforms and parliamentary government. When parliamentary democracy was institutionally established, the 'aristocracy' lost its central place in the rhetoric of a Swedish democratic tradition. At the same time, the notion of a coalition between the people and the monarch was revised to a more non-specific notion of the common interest between the people and the government. In the context of the rise of totalitarianism, a 'Swedish' and 'Nordic' democratic tradition was employed as a rhetorical means of defending existing political institutions in the country.

The article highlights the prominence of ism concepts in everyday and scholarly languages worldwide and presents a conceptual history and rhetorical perspective on how to study them. It also serves as an introduction to this special issue, which contributes to linguistically oriented research on political ideologies and transnational intellectual history. Although isms have gained some attention in connection with the study of ideas in history, political ideologies and theoretical discussions on analytical categories in scholarship, they have rarely been the main target of research. By focusing on the rhetorical use of ism concepts as a whole, the article directs new attention to the rhetorical potential of the use of isms in political controversies, the translation of isms and the alleged universal character of isms. The article suggests a new way of analysing political ideas, ideologies and analytical categories by applying a contextually sensitive understanding of the ism as words and their rhetorical use. It also presents an agenda for the study of isms globally.

This article presents a long-term account of isms from antiquity to the present. It discusses the spread of isms into nearly all spheres of life and why isms are still perceived as ideological. Based on a combined analysis of word frequencies in large digital libraries and more detailed contextual discussions of patriotism, liberalism, nationalism and totalitarianism, the article studies the emergence of isms and their potential transformation from pejorative labels to concepts of group-identification and analytical categories. Isms have been highlighted as future-oriented concepts on which modern political ideologies were built from the early nineteenth century on. Isms have also been identified as being collectively responsible for the twentieth-century experience that has been conceptualized as totalitarianism. While elaborating the notion of isms as ideological future-oriented 'concepts of movement', the article points out their crucial role in forging historic roots for these modern ideologies as well as for religious and cultural phenomena. By emphasizing the rhetorical potential in using isms as words of abuse, forging traditions for isms and claiming universal applicability to isms, the article provides insight into the constant renegotiation of the relationship between ideologies and isms, a phenomenon that has gained increased topicality in recent decades.

This round table discusses a collection that explores the circulation of ideas across and beyond the Mediterranean in the long nineteenth century, a space normally consigned to the margins of historiographical concerns and studied in discrete geographical areas. The commentators agree that the diasporic approach centred on biography taken by the collection demonstrates the existence of a plurality of liberal strands and political projects, highlights the importance of exchanges between European peripheries like Russia, the Adriatic and Greece, and challenges the notion of the derivative nature of eastern and oriental political culture. At the same time, the round table suggests new paths for future research, pointing to the desirability of producing a transnational conceptual history of liberalism that connects and compares East and West, and of applying the same transnational methodological approach to other seas.

The article examines the post-revolutionary rearrangement in Europe by focusing on the separation of Finland from Sweden. In 1809, the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom became a grand duchy within the autocratically ruled Russian empire. Both Finland and Sweden experienced the constitutional moment which characterised the post-revolutionary and post-Napoleonic Europe, but in very different ways. The Swedish Diet enacted a new written constitution while the Finnish Diet gave its oath to the new emperor, who promised to maintain the laws, privileges and rights of the country. Alexander I might have used the word «constitution» in his speech to the Finnish Estates, but the political status of the grand duchy remained unclear, and it was only in 1863 that the Finnish Diet was called to convene again. In the context of imperial dependency and a lack of established forums for public debate, the article analyses how the issue of political representation was made public in Finland during the first decade of Russian rule. The analysis is based on the ways in which the official newspaper described the new political situation of Finland and reported on political circumstances and parliamentary life in other countries. It is argued that the publication of news from abroad can be seen as an important way of keeping the issue of political representation alive in Finland. It was also a channel for the reception of political concepts. The study discusses the Finnish case in relation to political circumstances in Sweden. The comparative angle draws attention to complex features of the formation of a new polity and a reformation of an old.